Egyptian Astrology and Egyptian Zodiac Signs

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The Egyptians looked to the night sky to give them advice, knowledge and predictions. They believed that your personality, life and destiny were affected by the sign you were born under. These beliefs played a major role in the develop of modern astrology. While not much is known about Egyptian Astrology today, a few pieces of information remain – the Dendera Zodiac and the Cairo Calendar.

Dendera Zodiac

What we know of the Egyptian Zodiac stems from a piece of Egyptian astrological history at the Louvre in Paris – a Zodiac from the ceiling of a chapel of the Hathor temple in Dendera. Dating back to 50 BCE, the Dindera Zodiac is the oldest known representation of the classical 12 zodiac signs – Sagittarius, Taurus, Aries, Libra, and the rest.

Egyptian Astrology did not create the classical zodiac signs. The Babylonians created them and the Egyptians learned about them from the Greeks.

Egyptian Astrology did use the same basic constellations we use today, but they viewed them differently than we do. For example, what we call the “Big Dipper” was called the foreleg of an ox by the Egyptians.

Cairo Calendar

In 1943, the Cairo museum purchased a damaged papyrus. The papyrus turned out to be a method to track the days. It was named the Cairo Calendar.

The Cairo Calendar lists all of the days in the Egyptian Year. The days can be split into 3 categories:

favorable and unfavorable days

mythological events which can make a day favorable or unfavorable

how you're supposed to behave on each day

Decans in Egyptian Astrology

Egyptian Astrology contains 12 constellations that form 36 decans (groups of stars). Each decan had its own ruling planet, covered 10 degrees in the zodiac, and lasted for 10 days.

Because there is a new decan every 10 days, the 36 decans formed the basis of the Egyptian calendar. The Egyptians knew that it took 365 days for the Earth to complete it's cycle around the sun. The 36 decans, each listing for 10 days, gave them 360 days. They added an extra 5-days at the end of the year to reach 365. The extra 5 days were mainly used for festivities.

Egyptian Zodiac Signs

Like Western Astrology, Egyptian Astrology has 12 zodiac signs. Each sign is based on gods and goddesses, similar to how Western Astrology bases the signs on Aries, Libra, etc. The god or goddess of your sign represents your character, behavior, strengths, weaknesses and skills.

Each sign covers 3 decans, or 30 days. This means that you can have the same Egyptian zodiac sign as a friend of yours, but both of you can fall in different decans. Since each decan is related to a different planet, the two of you are affected by different planets.

But because much isn't known about Egyptian Astrology today, there are actually two different schools of Egyptian Astrology – one that assigns a traditional date based on the decans and one that assigns a date based on the influences of what the Ancients Egyptians learned from the Ancient Greeks about Babylonian astrology. The latter method of assigning a date is very similar to Western Astrology. However, because there are two schools, you may have two different ancient Egyptian Zodiac Signs.

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